I'd say any hero is a good pick (barring Techies), but Viper isn't all that general. His niche is pinning down single enemies and outlasting enemies (or at least in the most common playstyle), but he certainly is devastating in almost any pub game.

Thing about Viper is that he punishes bad judgement. Like you said, in average level pub games he can easily take a kill on a badly positioned enemy, and he will punish anyone who attempts to take offensive against him and fails. It's very common for inexperienced or even experienced players to under-estimate Viper and end up dying because they thought they could kill him before he killed them or because they thought they could get away if he took the initiative.

Generally speaking, being more than a few feet outside of tower range and inside Viper Strike range means Viper gets a free kill once he hits level 6. Amusingly, though, I've seen Silencers completely trash Vipers in a solo mid competition - that 50 range difference makes a world of, uh, difference.

---------- Post added 2012-11-30 at 01:42 PM ----------

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You probably know this, but for those that wonder, the attack speed slows are applied in the same way as attack speed increases before the attack time is calculated from base attack time. As in, all the attack speeds are additive with each other up to the maximum of 400 IAS. All attack speeds work the same way regardless of whether the game lists them as a % or a #. Which is why Viper's 105% (with Corrosive Skin) or Enchantress' 90% IAS reductions are very crippling to enemies who are below 100 IAS - but past, say, 200 IAS these effects become much less efficient. Which would be why late game Drow with some items and nobody at her melee range wouldn't really care that much about Viper Strike. Same reason why I've said Tiny with rank 3 ultimate is a rather pitiful right-clicker until he gets enough IAS to ignore the ultimate reduction.[/QUOTE]

That makes a lot more sense; but why say "80%" instead of just plain "80" if the modifiers stack additively? Why not say "reduces enemy attack speed by 80" rather than 80%?

I also do landscaping on weekends with some mexican kid that I "hired". He's real good because he's 100% obedient to me and does everything I say while never complaining. He knows that I am the man in the relationship and is completely submissive towards me as he should be.

The game doesnt even tell you when an ability goes through magic immunity, the tooltips in this game are seriously lacking.

Knowing a ton of mechanics will give you a slight edge over people who don't put the time in. Rule of thumb: The damage of magical ultimates get blocked, their slow/stun/disable does not. Are there any non-ultimate abilities that go through magic immunity? I can't think of any.

edit: there are some that go partially through magic immunity: bash from melee heroes (not skull basher), doom, march of the machines, midnight pulse

Knowing a ton of mechanics will give you a slight edge over people who don't put the time in. Rule of thumb: The damage of magical ultimates get blocked, their slow/stun/disable does not. Are there any non-ultimate abilities that go through magic immunity? I can't think of any.

Several abilities that do physical damage, like Shadow Wave. Though I don't think targeted physical abilities still work (well, besides Omnislash)

This. A game needs to tell you all of its mechanics clearly, not some mystery that you need to try before being sure. I don't even remember howmany times I forget a certain mechanic and tried to be sure in game because there was a huge lack of documentation about game mechanics. I really hope Valve devs understand that org DotA was a game of constraints and it needed tons of improvements not just balance or graphics or technology wise...So far I'm pretty disappointed with UI and mechanic documentation.

It's year 2012 and Valve is not working on WC3 engine. I really don't like their development philosophy(I believe that is because of IceFrog being too conservative or he's afraid of community criticism for drastic changes).

So far we have a unified client and shiny new graphics + smooter controls which are appriciated but these things were expected to be done anyway. I want to see more improvements starting from UI...but hey people don't like change even if its piece of shit in terms of Human Computer Interaction wise.

I just played Merlini and his friends twice solo queing. Not that I want to bring up an old argument but if you want proof I play with the best players in the world it should be directly in my game history now. You were so eager to see my solo queue games before so I felt obliged to inform you that I solo queued today.

So far we have a unified client and shiny new graphics + smooter controls which are appriciated but these things were expected to be done anyway. I want to see more improvements starting from UI...but hey people don't like change even if its piece of shit in terms of Human Computer Interaction wise.

What UI improvements would you like to see except the huge facelift we already got? List something instead of just saying "I'm disappointed with this" or "this sucks".

What UI improvements would you like to see except the huge facelift we already got? List something instead of just saying "I'm disappointed with this" or "this sucks".

The question wasnt directed at me but I'd like to comment regardless.

What I'd like is to have some kind of ingame encyclopedia that can be viewed during games by using simple commands.
For example, GW2 hat a neat system where you could type /wiki [name of ability, quest or NPC] and it would take you to the offical wiki page for that keyword
In Dota2 you should be able to rightlick abilites in the <killed by> tab and go directly to a page that tells you exactly how this ability functions in regards to magic immunity, linkens etc.
Right clicking your own abilites should also have this option.
I appreciate that these mechanics are in the game because thats what makes it difficult, but it shouldnt be difficult because it withholds information from the player.

I appreciate that these mechanics are in the game because thats what makes it difficult, but it shouldnt be difficult because it withholds information from the player.

This is my argument for actually putting in tooltips about mechanics in the game. The game should be about who uses the given tools to their maximum and a shitty player will still be a shitty player just that he might actually learn what he did wrong.

I also do landscaping on weekends with some mexican kid that I "hired". He's real good because he's 100% obedient to me and does everything I say while never complaining. He knows that I am the man in the relationship and is completely submissive towards me as he should be.

My attitude never changed to your bullshits. When you make strong argument I take you seriously. When you don't and throw unique bullshits of yours I just give appropriate answer. You tell me that you have proof that you are playing with pros after 6 months of discussion, do you want me to take it seriously. Anyway, even you are right I just don't like the way you tell it.

Originally Posted by Longview

What UI improvements would you like to see except the huge facelift we already got? List something instead of just saying "I'm disappointed with this" or "this sucks".

I'm not fan of fixed UIs but just for the sake of "fairness" which I don't think related with some 1, 2 cm square available space in screen but anyway here is what I would expect
- Remove useless textures
- Remove hero portrait
- Make spells smaller
- A health globe just like in GW 2 would be better(but this is just my personal preference)
- Enhanced tooltips
- Loading tips would be good for new users(there was something smilar in dota-utilities.com)

After these changes, the UI will feel better I believe. This game is ACTION RTS. The reason why there was hero portrait in WC3 because it was heavily story-driven and when you consider that it makes sense but in DotA2, no1 gives a shit to lore and lore will never ever be the strong point in this genre. Also, action RTS genre indeed involves intense actions, if you limit UI with unnecessary textures, then, it just won't make sense and effect game play experience in a bad manner. I'm not UI specialist but I do understand the basics of Human-Computer Interaction and current UI makes no sense.

A tip for you: next time if you are interested check my post history because when I say something is bad I generally come up with ideas and I mentioned about these changes before.

Originally Posted by Enkidulgaa

For example, GW2 hat a neat system where you could type /wiki [name of ability, quest or NPC

Wiki can not solution because everyone can edit it. When some troll edits the critical information you need during game, you will be misinformed. Game needs its own documentation.

- Remove useless textures
- Remove hero portrait
- Make spells smaller
- A health globe just like in GW 2 would be better(but this is just my personal preference)
- Enhanced tooltips
- Loading tips would be good for new users(there was something smilar in dota-utilities.com)

I disagree with all of those and much doubt some of them will ever happen, save for the loading tips which I frankly don't care about.

When it comes to tooltips, HoN makes a good example. They used to have massive tooltips with almost every bit of information you could think of, which was actually fairly useful at times. However it turned out a lot of people didn't like them, and $2 changed them to something similar to what Dota 2 has now and everyone loved them. They did leave an option for enabling the old tooltips, but they were more or less broken for new heroes.

But I don't really care about tooltips in Dota 2, there's little to no things I don't remember and the only things I sometimes check are the level scaling values which are displayed anyway. They should just make the in-game hero database better, and maybe sometime in the future when they have time make advanced tooltips available.

Right clicking wouldn't be the best button though since IIRC, it's used for turning autocast on and off.

Originally Posted by Kuntantee

This game is ACTION RTS. The reason why there was hero portrait in WC3 because it was heavily story-driven and when you consider that it makes sense but in DotA2, no1 gives a shit to lore and lore will never ever be the strong point in this genre.

Maybe it's just me but I actually care a great deal for the characters and lore in this game. Okay, the "lore" is pretty much internet generator-level and some of their voice acting is a bit...suspect but still.

I disagree with all of those and much doubt some of them will ever happen, save for the loading tips which I frankly don't care about.

When it comes to tooltips, HoN makes a good example. They used to have massive tooltips with almost every bit of information you could think of, which was actually fairly useful at times. However it turned out a lot of people didn't like them, and $2 changed them to something similar to what Dota 2 has now and everyone loved them. They did leave an option for enabling the old tooltips, but they were more or less broken for new heroes.

But I don't really care about tooltips in Dota 2, there's little to no things I don't remember and the only things I sometimes check are the level scaling values which are displayed anyway. They should just make the in-game hero database better, and maybe sometime in the future when they have time make advanced tooltips available.

I provided arguments WHY useless texture is useless in this genre. I respect your personal preference, you may want old-school interface but i think current UI does not enhance genre-specific features in anyway. I have no idea about HoN's enhanced tooltips and I don't really know why you give me some shitty(assuming it is) implementation of enhanced tooltips but it can be done right. I'm not talking about every single mechanics etc but magic immunity penetration would be a good start. The reason I forget certain things in DotA is because I give huge breaks and in that time I do not follow patch notes, changes etc.

I, too, don't care about loading tips. I was just listing possible improvements for UI. What I care is core UI of the game and a good documentation about everything in game(not necessarily in game). Also some of those features won't be in game. Not because they are bad suggestion, it is because people don't like changes. If you had some idea about human computer interaction, you would agree with me.

Originally Posted by Lycoris

Maybe it's just me but I actually care a great deal for the characters and lore in this game. Okay, the "lore" is pretty much internet generator-level and some of their voice acting is a bit...suspect but still.

I didn't say no1 will care Lore but it is way less important compared to other genres. So copying UI from an old game in different genre does not make sense to me and UI feels very unfunctional for me. Also DotA2 lore will never be "epic" because heroes are copied from warcraft universe. If this had been done in a RPG game it would feel very cheap and lazy but it's just okay in ARTS which implies lore has no importance. Finally, I think DotA 2 has one of the best quality voice acting in the market.